Black Sabbath (Italian: I tre volti della paura, lit.'The Three Faces of Fear') is a 1963 horroranthology film directed by Mario Bava. The film is centered on three separate tales that are introduced by Boris Karloff. The first, titled "The Telephone", involves Rosy (Michèle Mercier) who continually receives threatening telephone calls from an unseen stalker. The second is "The Wurdulak", where a man named Gorca (Karloff) returns to his family after claiming to have slain a Wurdulak, an undead creature who attacks those that it had once loved. The third story, "The Drop of Water", is centered on Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreux), a nurse who steals a ring from a corpse that is being prepared for burial and finds herself haunted by the ring's original owner after arriving home.

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire and, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the closest language to it of the Romance languages. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City. It has an official minority status in western Istria. It formerly had official status in Albania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro (Kotor) and Greece, and is generally understood in Corsica and Savoie. It also used to be an official language in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa, where it still plays a significant role in various sectors. Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania, although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian and other regional languages.

Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is the rendering of text from one language to another one word at a time with or without conveying the sense of the original whole.

A horror film is a film that seeks to elicit fear for entertainment purposes. Initially inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror has existed as a film genre for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction, and thriller genres.

Being a low-budget horror film with multiple stories, an international cast and foreign financial backing, Black Sabbath follows numerous trends of 1960s Italian film productions. The film is credited to various writers, but is predominantly based on several uncredited sources, and changes were made to the script after filming commenced. American International Pictures and Titra Sound Corporation suggested changes to Bava during filming to make the film palatable for American audiences, and created their own English-language version of the film, which replaced Roberto Nicolosi's score with music by Les Baxter, removed several depictions of graphic violence and made alterations to other scenes. This version greatly changed the plot of "The Telephone", giving it a supernatural element and removing all references to lesbianism and prostitution.

American International Pictures (AIP) was an independent film production and distribution company formed on April 2, 1954 as American Releasing Corporation (ARC) by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer. It was dedicated to releasing low-budget films packaged as double features, primarily of interest to the teenagers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Nicholson and Arkoff formed ARC in 1954; their first release was The Fast and the Furious in 1955.

Titra Studios aka Titan Productions is an American dubbing studio. The studio was responsible for dubbing numerous foreign films, including Mothra vs. Godzilla 1964 as well as the Speed Racer cartoon series and the original Ultraman TV series.

Roberto Nicolosi was an Italian jazz double-bassist and leader born in Genoa.

Black Sabbath was a commercial failure upon release in Italy, and performed below expectations in America. A spiritual sequel to the film, based on "The Dunwich Horror" and provisionally titled Scarlet Friday, was set to reunite Bava with Karloff and co-star Christopher Lee, but AIP distanced themselves from Bava following the failure of Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs and eventually produced the film without Bava, Karloff or Lee's involvement. Plans for a remake were announced in 2004 with Jonathan Hensleigh attached to write the script. Since its original release, Black Sabbath has received positive reviews from critics, and was placed at number 73 on a Time Out poll of the best horror films.

"The Dunwich Horror" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales (pp. 481–508). It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts. It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was an English actor, singer and author. With a career spanning nearly 70 years, Lee was well known for portraying villains and became best known for his role as Count Dracula in a sequence of Hammer Horror films, a typecasting he always lamented. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014).

Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs is a 1966 Eurospy comedy film, made in Technicolor and directed by Mario Bava. Serving as a sequel to two unrelated films, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger, the film stars Vincent Price, Fabian, Francesco Mulé, Laura Antonelli, and the Italian comedy team Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia.

Plot

Note: This plot summary refers to the original Italian version of the film.

"The Telephone"

Rosy (Michèle Mercier), a French call-girl, returns to her basement apartment at night. She receives a series of strange phone calls. The caller eventually identifies himself as Frank, her former pimp who has recently escaped from prison. Rosy is terrified; it was her testimony that sent Frank to prison. Rosy phones Mary (Lydia Alfonsi) for solace. The women have been estranged, but Rosy is certain that only Mary can help her. Mary agrees to come over that night. Seconds later, Frank calls again, promising that no matter what Rosy does he will have his revenge. Rosy doesn't realize that Mary is impersonating Frank on the telephone. Mary arrives at Rosy's apartment and attempts to calm Rosy's nerves. Mary provides Rosy with a large knife for protection before she goes to sleep.

Michèle Mercier is a French actress. In the course of her career she has worked with leading directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli, Mario Bava, Peter Collinson and Ken Annakin. Her leading men have included Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Gabin, Charles Aznavour, Robert Hossein, Charles Bronson, Tony Curtis and Charlton Heston. She has appeared in over fifty films, and is best known for her starring role in Angelique, Marquise des Anges.

Lydia Alfonsi is a former Italian actress.

As Rosy sleeps, Mary writes a confession explaining that she made the calls to force a reunion, knowing that Rosy would call on her for help. While she is writing, an intruder enters the apartment. The intruder is Frank (Milo Quesada),[3] who strangles Mary. The sound of their struggle awakens Rosy, and Frank realizes he murdered the wrong woman. Frank approaches Rosy's bed, but she seizes her knife and stabs Frank. Rosy drops the knife and breaks down in hysteria.

Milo Quesada, born as Raúl García Alonso, was an Argentinian actor.

"The Wurdalak"

In 19th Century Russia, Vladimir Durfe (Mark Damon) is a young nobleman who finds a beheaded corpse with a knife plunged into its heart. He takes the blade, and finds shelter in a small cottage. Durfe is approached by Giorgio (Glauco Onorato) who explains that the knife belongs to his father, who has not been seen for five days. Giorgio offers a room to Durfe and introduces him to the rest of the family: his wife (Rika Dialina), their young son Ivan, Giorgio's younger brother Pietro (Massimo Righi), and sister Sdenka (Susy Andersen). They all await the return of Gorca, who has gone to fight the wurdalak, a living cadaver who feeds on human blood, especially of close friends and family members. At midnight, Gorca (Boris Karloff) returns to the cottage with a sour demeanor and unkempt appearance. After the family goes to sleep, Ivan and Pietro are attacked by Gorca who flees the cottage with Ivan. Giorgio chases after Gorca but only returns with Ivan's corpse. Giorgio plans to stake and behead Ivan to prevent him from reviving as a Wurdalak, but is prevented from doing so by his wife. The two agree to give their son a burial.

Mark Damon is an American film actor and producer. He rose to fame through acting roles in films like Roger Corman's House of Usher, before moving to Italy and becoming a notable Western star and member of the 1960s Dolce Vita set of actors and actresses in Rome. After starring in over 50 films in the United States and Europe, he quit acting and reinvented himself as a film producer and pioneer of the foreign sales business in the 1970s, and became one of Hollywood's most prolific producers.

Glauco Onorato was an Italian actor and voice actor.

Susy Andersen is an Italian actress.

That same night, their child appears outside and begs to be invited in. Giorgio is stabbed by his wife while she attempts to let in her son. On opening the door, she is greeted by Gorca who bites her. Vladimir and Sdenka flee from their home and hide in the ruins of a cathedral. As Vladimir sleeps, Sdenka walks outside and finds Gorca and his family surrounding her. Vladimir awakens and searches for Sdenka, finding her lying motionless in her bed at home. Sdenka awakens and upon receiving Vladimir's embrace, she bites into his neck.

"The Drop of Water"

In 1910s London, Nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) is called by the maid (Milly Monti) of an elderly medium to prepare the latter's corpse for burial. As she dresses the body, she notices a sapphire ring on its finger. Chester steals it, accidentally tipping over a glass of water which drips on the floor; she is then assailed by a fly. Chester takes the ring home to her flat and witnesses strange events. The fly returns and continues to pester her, and the lights in her apartment go out as the sound of the dripping water is heard from various locations. Chester finds the woman's corpse lying in her bed. It rises and floats toward her. Chester begs for forgiveness, but ultimately strangles herself. The next morning, the concierge (Harriet White Medin) discovers Chester's body and calls the police. The pathologist (Gustavo De Nardo) arrives to examine the body and only finds a small bruise on her left finger where her ring once was. As the doctor (Alessandro Tedeschi) announces this observation, the concierge appears distressed and hears the dripping of water.

Production

Development

In 1958, American International Pictures founders James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff hired Italian talent agent and producer Fulvio Lucisano to look for commercially viable Italian films for them after the large success of the Italian feature Hercules (1958).[5] In February 1963, American International Pictures made a deal with the Italian film production company Galatea that they would contribute to a minimum of nine co-productions in the next eight years.[6]Black Sabbath follows many production trends of Italian films of the era.[7] These co-productions were influenced by the lack of large film stars in Italy.[6] To avoid high costs or larger stars, producers created anthology films involving three or four short narratives whose combined running time was that of a regular feature film, as in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963).[6] A second trend was to match an up-and-coming actor or a much older actor with a European ingenue actress, as in Spy in Your Eye which paired Pier Angeli and Dana Andrews.[6][7] The third trend was the move towards making Westerns and horror films which were less expensive to produce than the previous sword and sandal films.[7]

Bava is credited as writing the film's script along with Alberto Bevilacqua and Marcello Fondato.[10] The film's opening credits credit the stories as "The Drop of Water" by Ivan Chekov, "The Telephone" by F.G. Snyder and "Sem'ya vurdalaka" by Aleksei Tolstoy.[10][11] Bava later took credit for the original story of "The Drop of Water", but Italian critic Antonio Bruscini traced its origins to a story titled "Dalle tre alle tre e mezzo" ("Between Three and Three-thirty") that was included in a 1960 anthology book titled Storie di fantasmi (Ghost Stories).[11][12][13] British historian Julian Granger identified the author of the story as Franco Lucentini.[12] "The Wurdulak" is loosely based on The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy.[14] The story of "The Wurdulak" was found in the 1960 anthology I vampiri tra noi.[15] Other parts of the story were inspired by the Guy de Maupassant story "Fear" and Bram Stoker's Dracula.[16]

Bevilacqua stated that Bava wanted to create a stories about how terror can strike mankind in different time periods and asked his screenwriters to get him stories from books.[17][18] After Bevilacqua finished his draft the screenplay, Marcello Fondato was brought in to work on it.[18] Bevilacqua claimed that he was recalled for later rewrites, but that most of his added material was cut from the final film.[19] American International Pictures approved of Bava's thematic idea but encouraged him to look for public domain titles.[20]

It was decided early in production that Boris Karloff would not only star in one of the tales, but also act as the film's host; he had recently hosted his own anthology television series, Thriller.[21] Karloff was under contract with American International Pictures, and had just completed filming The Raven for them.[22] The film's cinematographer is credited as Ubaldo Terzano, but Bava shot several scenes himself without credit.[10]

Production

Black Sabbath was made at the end of production of The Girl Who Knew Too Much during an eight-week period between February and March 1963.[23][24] American International's involvement with the film allowed Salvatore Billitteri of Titra Sound Corporation to be on set to supervise the film for dubbing on its English-language release.[7] As the film was going to be dubbed in different languages, actors could no longer phonetically pronounce their dialogue as it had to be done rhythmically to match various languages.[7] Billitteri was also on set to give suggestions to Bava on how to make his film more appropriate for American audiences, which led to decreasing the amount of violence in the film.[25] The film was first conceived under the title The Fear.[17]

Bava wanted to include a contemporary story which led to the development of "The Telephone".[20] "The Telephone" has been described as one of Bava's first attempts at a giallo film.[26][27] The giallo film is a style of Italian film that involves a murder mystery that emphasized stylish visuals, flamboyant music and violence.[28][29] "The Telephone" was Bava's first color film that attempted to emulate the visual style of the covers that appeared on giallo digests.[29] Some of the set pieces for "The Telephone" were taken from the black-and-white giallo film The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1962).[27]

"The Wurdulak" was the last of the short films to be shot, with shooting commencing on either February 25 or 27.[30] While filming, Karloff contracted pneumonia, which led to him having to rely on oxygen tanks after production ended.[31] Bava was initially going to end the film on a shot of Jacqueline Pierreux's dead character.[21] On the last day of filming, Billitteri suggested to not end the film on such a bleak image and told Bava to change it.[21] Bava changed the ending to Boris Karloff's character of Gorka on horseback who cautions the audience to watch out for vampires. The camera then pans back revealing he is on a stuffed horse revealing the studio set and simulated effects.[21]

Post-production

Two screenshots of the same scene from "The Wurdulak". The top image is from the Italian version supervised by Mario Bava. The second is from American International's print.

By the 1960s, Italian horror films such as Black Sabbath were more violent, sexualized and downbeat than the horror films created in America.[32]American International Pictures focused on a youth-oriented audience whereas horror in Europe was intended for adults.[32][33] This led to the American edit removing plot elements of prostitution and lesbianism and making the most altered of Bava's films on its English language version.[33][34] American International Pictures made changes to all three stories and intro segments in the English-language version of the film. The company re-arranged the order of the stories to start with "The Drop of Water", followed by "The Telephone" and then "The Wurdalak".[33] Changes were then made to the plots, the most extensively edited being "The Telephone".[33] In "The Telephone" any suggestion of a lesbian relationship between Rosy and Mary and references to prostitution were removed.[33] The character of Frank is also no longer a pimp but a ghost who leaves behind enchanted notes that magically write themselves as soon as the envelope they are contained in is opened.[33][35] A new character is introduced named "The Colonel" who is Rosy's neighbor in the film.[35] "The Wurdalak" features alternative cuts of certain scenes and has violence trimmed from the Italian version.[21] "The Drop of Water" features the fewest changes from the Italian version.[21] American International Pictures reshot the wraparounds with Boris Karloff in Los Angeles. It is unknown who directed these scenes.[25]

American International Pictures replaced Roberto Nicolosi's soundtrack from the original film with a soundtrack from Les Baxter.[21][36]Kim Newman described Baxter's score as "inappropriate" with "each shock is accompanied by overdone 'scary music'".[37] Both the Italian and English language films have a different look. Bava supervised the Italian language version at Technicolor Roma under his own supervision while American International Pictures shipped their version to Pathé Color for processing.[36] Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas described the English language print as looking "warmer, but less nuanced, with flatter tonalities" and that it "doesn't look bad" but that the Italian version "looks more vibrant, more flamboyantly nightmarish".[36]

Release

The film opened in Italy through Warner Bros. on August 17, 1963 under the title I tre volti della paura (transl.The Three Faces of Fear).[3][8][38]Black Sabbath failed to recoup its budget upon its initial Italian release (making it a box office bomb), grossing 103.5 million Italian lira (equivalent to $65,000).[3] Co-writer Alberto Bevilacqua suggested that the film's poor performance was possibly affected by bad publicity, recalling that "someone had a miscarriage while watching it, or some other upsetting thing happened".[39]

American International Pictures released the English version of Black Sabbath on May 6, 1964 as a double bill with AIP's edit of Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much, then titled Evil Eye.[3][40] The English title of Black Sabbath was chosen to connect it with Bava's previous film Black Sunday.[38] In the US, Black Sabbath was only a modest success, earning $419,000 in domestic rentals, less than two-thirds of Black Sunday's earnings of $706,000. While praising Reynold Brown's artwork for AIP's advertising campaign, Lucas has suggested that its failure to capitalize on Karloff's popularity among young audiences was a key factor in the film's relatively meager commercial performance.[41] The film opened in France on 17 November 1965 under the title Les trois visages de la peur.[3]

Home video

Image Entertainment released the film in both the English and Italian versions on DVD on August 1, 2000.[43]Kino released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on July 16, 2013.[44] Kino's edition of the film was mastered in high definition from the 35mm negative with the Italian language dub and original soundtrack.[44]Arrow Films released Black Sabbath on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013.[45] Arrow's transfer of the Italian version was from an original 35mm internegative print transferred in Italy that had additional grading and restoration done in London.[46] Arrow's version of the American version of Black Sabbath was made from a 35mm interpositive in California.[46] Arrow noted the high definition master they received from Italy was very difficult to restore as the master had issues with the image, sound and color quality and had the stories in the wrong order.[47]

Reception

In a contemporary review of the American International Picture's edit, The Globe and Mail stated that "The Drop of Water" and "The Telephone" were "a good deal more sophisticated than usual horror fare" while "The Wurdulak" "bears no trace of [Bava's] manner of directing" and that the acting was "rudimentary".[48]The Boston Globe gave the film a negative review, referring to the Black Sabbath as "three short films botched together".[49] The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "the eeriest thing about the picture is its decor (especially the heavy, dusty interiors of [The Drop of Water]" while noting the "acting is very unstylish and made worse by dubbing".[50] The review stated that Bava could "do better than this with less obvious material" and that he seemed "determined to spell everything out with a sudden zoom shots and shock cuts."[50]

Reviewing the English-language version of the film, Time Out praised the film stating that "pictorially it's amazing, and even the script and dubbing are way above average."[51]Time Out compared the film to anthology horror films made by the British production company Amicus noting that "If only Amicus...had taken heed they might have got some ideas as to what can be done with the format."[51]Entertainment Weekly awarded the film an A- rating referring to it as "excellent" and that the stories were "composed of three tales of expertly building suspense"[52]Kim Newman wrote in a retrospective review of the English dub, that "The Drop of Water" is the best of the three stories, and was described as "Bava's most simply frightening work."[37] "The Telephone" was dismissed as being "less satisfying", stating that American International Pictures' attempt at re-writing the story caused the stories' problems.[37] Newman declared that "The Wurdalak" was a "little masterpiece" praising Karloff's performance and that the themes of the story looked towards the themes in Night of the Living Dead and It's Alive.[37]

In contemporary reviews of the Italian-language version, The Dissolve gave the film three and a half stars out of five, stating "There are small twists in all three stories, but for the most part, the segments suggest where they're headed early" and that the dialogue in the film is "sparse, and doesn't shy away from any exploitable elements, from scantily clad women to bloody wounds and warped-faced ghouls. But even more terrifying is the movie's atmosphere of doom [...] Black Sabbath is fraught with fatalism."[53]Total Film awarded the film four stars out of five, referring to it as a "wonderful horror anthology".[54] Online film database AllMovie praised "The Wurdulak" stating that Karloff's "ghostly visage provides several unforgettable scares" and that "The Drop of Water" is short but "remains scary and suspenseful throughout"[26] AllMovie described "The Telephone" as "only an average tale that follows through to a predictable twist"[26] In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films;[55]Black Sabbath placed at number 73 on their top list.[56]

Influence and aftermath

English rock band Black Sabbath (pictured) took their group's name from the film's English title.

The English heavy metal band Black Sabbath appropriated their name from the film.[63] Originally known as Earth, the group wanted to change their name as another group had the same name.[64] The group saw a local cinema playing Black Sabbath and marveled that people paid money to be frightened.[64]

Directors Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino were influenced by Black Sabbath's story structure for their original script for Pulp Fiction (1994).[65] The film was originally going to be three short films with each one being directed by Avary, Tarantino and another unknown director.[65][66] Tarantino originally described this idea by stating that "what Mario Bava did with the horror film in Black Sabbath, I was gonna do with the crime film."[67]

See also

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